Ubisoft’s brand has been struggling in recent years, but with the current plans for games like the rumoredFar Cry 7, it looks like the company might be getting serious about fixing its image. While Ubisoft has some great games under its belt, it’s also become synonymous with an arguably misguided approach to iteration. The freshest ideas presented in early entries of franchises likeAssassin’s Creedhave largely been diluted over time, and the strongest new concepts can end up buried under a focus on monotonous scale.
That isn’t to say that the games are just getting worse.On the contrary, I’d argue thatthe past few years have seen meaningful improvements across Ubisoft’s titles, and the publisher’s willingness to delayAssassin’s Creed Shadowsresulted in a game that was in surprisingly good shape by launch.Shadowsmight not be enoughto restore interest from former fans who have already sworn off Ubisoft games, however, and that’s where the company’s next steps might become critical to ensuring its relevance for years to come.
Ubisoft Is Delaying More Upcoming Games
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Was Just The Start
A lot of Ubisoft’s upcoming slate is currently hazy, but thanks to a new fiscal report available onGlobeNewsWire, we now have some direct confirmation that 2025 won’t be especially busy. In a statement provided alongside the earnings figures, co-founder andCEO Yves Guillemot stated thatUbisoft has “decided to provide additional development time"to flagship productions, resulting in a concentration of “significant content” in the 2026 and 2027 fiscal years.
“Additionally, after a review of our pipeline, we have decided to provide additional development time to some of our biggest productions in order to create the best conditions for success. As a consequence, FY2026-27 and FY2027-28 will see significant content coming from our largest brands.” - Yves Guillemot
This isn’t quite the same as theAssassin’s Creed Shadowsdelays, which pushed a hard release date twice while the launch was close at hand.Major projects likeAssassin’s Creed Hexeand the nextFar Crygame have little to no details publicly available, so Ubisoft isn’t having to renege on previous release date promises. Additional development time does mean that internal targets are changing, however, and this could affect the vague 2025 windows that were confirmed forAnno 117: Pax Romanaand the mobile titlesAssassin’s Creed Codename JadeandTom Clancy’s The Division Resurgence.
Far Cry 7 Will Be The Product Of A Different Ubisoft Environment
Things Are Changing Within Ubisoft
It’s currently anyone’s guess as to which Ubisoft flagship will release next, but whichever one it is, it’s going to have a very different set of circumstances along its release than preceding Ubisoft games did. In addition to the expanded development cycles,Ubisoft also recently announced a major change in structure,creating a new subsidiarythat handlesAssassin’s Creed,Far Cry, andTom Clancy’s Rainbow Sixwith Chinese holding company Tencent as a minority stakeholder. The earnings report provides a minor update on this situation, reporting steady progress toward a closed transaction by the end of 2025.
When the next entries in these franchises do start to roll out,Far Cry 7may be the best litmus test for how things have changed. The lastFar Crytitle released in 2021, and its tepid critical reception indicated mounting fatigue with the repetitive nature of the series. WhileFar Cry 3is still fondly remembered, an over-reliance on its formula in subsequent titles has led to diminishing returns, and frustrating decisions likeFar Cry 5’s tendency to punctuate its gameplay loop with random kidnappings and generic shootouts make any changes hard to appreciate.
IfFar Cry 7releases in 2026, it’ll need some major shake-upsto re-energize the franchise. The five-year gap will only raise those stakes, but the extended development time that Guillemot is promising for major works-in-progress could be a great opportunity to punch up the experience.Assassin’s Creed Shadows' changes were all happening with the finish line looming, and pulling back to recalibrate before the nextFar Cryentry has even been revealed could move the focus from emergency fixes to more fundamental design improvements.
Ubisoft’s Next Era Is Its Most Important
Far Cry 7 Is Poised On The Pivot Point
No two people are likely to have the same opinion on when exactly Ubisoft fell off, so to speak, but by the mid-2010s, you were certainly seeing a mixed bag of experiences. For my money, things bottom out around the end of the 2010s and beginning of the 2020s, with even the better titles mostly feeling like lesser versions of things that came before. In 2023 and 2024,games likeAssassin’s Creed Mirage,Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, andStar Wars Outlawsstarted to incorporate new ideas, and while the results have been mixed,it does feel like an upward trend.
From an optimistic perspective, the last few years have been a period of coming out of a tailspin, but none of that will matter if the next slate of games can’t chart a confident course forward.Far Cry 7could invoke the genuine chaotic opportunities ofJust Cause, tell a story that rises above juvenile punchlines, or fill out a world with a more bespoke sense of exploration. It could also, however, just be anotherFar Cry. Either way,it may be the benchmark that determines whether Ubisoft is capable of truly redefining itself.
I don’t know how much faith I have inFar Cry, and as far as personal enjoyment goes, I’ll probablyget more out ofAssassin’s Creed Hexethan whateverFar Cryhas to offer next. These are massive, expensive projects, though, andUbisoft needs to capture audiences that go beyond the most loyal franchise acolytes. IfFar Cry 7does nothing to win me or other skeptics over, it might herald the end of the road for Ubisoft rather than the dawn of new possibilities.
Either way, I’ll certainly be paying attention, as Ubisoft’s make-or-break moment didn’t start and end withAssassin’s Creed Shadows. One of the biggest gaming juggernauts is in need of reinvention, and it may be stepping back to do just that.Assassin’s Creed Shadowsreminded me that Ubisoft can still make fun games, butFar Cry 7could determine whether it’s capable of anything more.
